RememberControl
by DeceitToMatchYourOwn
Summary: AU/OOC Clary and Jace met at the club, but nothing bad happened after. One morning Clary wakes up and Jace temporarily forgets her. He blanks out that night and Clary finds out that someone is trying to get into Jace's head, to erase Clary and take over Jace. The only danger to Clary that Jace can't fight is himself. (I haven't read the books, don't get mad)
1. Chapter 1

I woke up to soft light filtering through the thin curtains in my room. I turned over and saw an angel. Jace's smooth skin seemed to glow in the cool morning sun. I stroked his cheek, making his eyes flutter open for the smallest moment. He sighed and rolled over from his back to his front, making his blonde hair light up in the sun.

"That's weird." He said quietly.

"What?" I whispered. Smiling at the sight of his ruffled hair falling over his face.

"Must have gone to town last night. I don't remember anything. Oh God, my head. Shit." He groaned, rolling back over and bringing his hands to the sides of his head, scrunching his eyes shut.

"What?" I asked, confused. What was he going on about?

"Do _you _remember anything?" He asked, looking up through bleary eyes.

"I remember everything Jace, what are you talking about? Stop this." I whispered, almost angrily.

"Well _something_ certainly happened. Where are we? Why did I bring you _here_? Or did _you_ bring _me_ here?" He said, leaning up on his elbows and looking at me firstly like he'd never met me."Woah."

"What?" I said, borderline frantic. What was happening? It wasn't funny.

"Oh, nothing. It's just that... well, I think I did well to get _you_ considering the state I must have been in to truly not remember a thing." He said, before groaning again and rolling off the bed, leaning against the side of it with his hands clutching his head.

"This isn't funny Jace." I said urgently.

"Who's being funny?"

"You didn't drink anything last night. What is the last thing you remember?" I tried to sound calm, but it wasn't working.

"I don't know. I was going somewhere with... a friend."

"So you don't know me or remember me at all?"

"No, should I?" He asked, sounding irritated. "Look, I'm really not up for this right now. My head is throbbing. This is ridiculous." This was feeling less and less like a joke every passing second.

"Yes Jace, you should remember me." I said numbly, getting up from the bed and padding into the bathroom. As I shut the door I saw him roll over into a ball, groaning. If he had drunk, which I knew he hadn't, wouldn't he be clutching his stomach or be sick? Shouldn't he have realised that? Something was very, very wrong. What was I supposed to do? Had he hit his head? That would explain his head aching, but how could he forget me entirely? Maybe he had epilepsy or something? I seriously doubted it. Realistically, I don't think Shadowhunters had that kind of thing. Could they get cancer or tumours? What if he never remembered?

I ended up sitting on the floor with my head between my legs with these thoughts whirring around in my brain. By the time I could think straight, at least ten minutes must have passed. It was another few minutes before I could bring myself to begin to stand and think about leaving the bathroom. I heard a voice in the bedroom.

"Clary? Where are you?" Jace called.

"In the bathroom!" I answered without thinking. Wait. What. What? I rushed out and ran straight into Jace, knocking us both to the floor. He smiled and laid his head down, stroking a strand of hair off my face.

"Hello." He said pleasantly.

"What?" I asked, not quite comprehending what was happening.

"Hello?" He replied, in a question.

Clary was looking at me like I had grown horns. She disentangled herself from me and stood, eyeing me cautiously. "What is it?" I asked, "What's wrong?"

"Do you really not remember?" She asked dubiously.

"Clearly not. Remember what?" I stood up

"You... you just- you didn't- what?" Well something was certainly flustering her. "You forgot me!" She blurted out.

"I forgot you?" I asked, raising my eyebrows and smiling. "When? What am I missing here?" I crossed my arms.

"Just then. You- I think I'm going crazy. You forgot me. Entirely."

"What are you talking about? You're sure this wasn't a dream?"

"What's the last thing you remember?" She asked.

"Going to sleep with you." I said warmly.

"We just had a five minute con-" She cut off, "Forget it. You're right, it must've been a dream."

As the words left my mouth, I knew they weren't true. Something had happened and I needed to talk to someone who might know about it. Maybe it had happened before. Jace shot me a concerned look and placed his hands on my shoulders, leading me out of the room. I was calm by the time we reached the kitchen, but still anxious underneath the facade.

I wouldn't be able to talk to Alec or Izzy in person for days; they were away, tracking something or someone down. Could I wait? I would have to; I didn't get a moment alone to call all day. The day passed without incident. As Jace and I settled into bed at the institute that night we lay facing each other, which may not have been the best idea on my part given that I was still just as worried as I had been that morning and I was too tired to keep the concern off my face.

"What's wrong Clary?" He asked, running his fingers along my cheek. "You've been looking at me weirdly all day. Are you still thinking about that dream? I'm not going to forget you." He smiled.

"It's nothing, really. It just scared me a bit, that's all. It's fine." I lied. He didn't believe me.

"Was it really that bad?"

"It's late Jace, we should sleep. Besides, it really doesn't matter." I wished he would let it go. I didn't want to say more until I had a chance to talk to Isabel or Alec.

"I'm wide awake, Clary. Please tell me. I don't know how to help if I don't know what's bothering you. Was it really just that I forgot you? What do you mean?" He stared intently as he laid back down, waiting for an answer. He wasn't going to let it go. I had to tell him. How much harm could it do? After all, he thought it was a dream. I sighed.

"I woke up next to you," I began, but he interrupted.

"Hardly a nightmare." He teased.

"Shut up," I smiled, slapping his bare chest. Immediately I was serious again. "I woke up next to you and you said "I must have gone to town last night, I don't remember anything." And you treated me like I was just another random-" I paused mid sentence. Something was up again. His hands held his head again. "Are you okay Jace?" I asked, instantly worried.

"Ungh, it's just my head. Hurts." He said through his teeth, turning over, away from me. His fingers dug into his hair, pulling at it as he groaned.

"Jace!" I cried.

"I'll be fine, keep going." He hissed.

"Well we both know that's a lie." I said. He didn't reply, just laid there in a ball. "Fuck!" he shouted, as suddenly every muscle in his body tensed. I could see his fists clenching in his hair as they had that morning.

I leapt off the bed and ran to the side he was facing. When I reached him his hands had relaxed, falling to the mattress. He made a noise halfway between a groan and a whimper as he convulsed once and his eyes rolled back into his head. Jace, whimpering? "Jace!" I screamed, but he couldn't hear me. I shook him, but he didn't respond. When his eyes rolled back forward they were glazed over. I waved a hand in front of him. No response. His glassy eyes, always so alert, stared right through me, into nothing.

I had to talk to Izzy, _now. _Politeness be damned.


	2. Chapter 2

I promise next chapter has banter in it, we need a break from quite so much seriousness :) Yess I wrote it all at once so I'm posting the first three within minutes of each other, I'm excited, leave me alone. Actually PLEASE don't leave me alone.

"Why in _God's_ name are you calling me now?" Hissed Izzy sleepily over the phone.

"Something is wrong with Jace." I whispered frantically.

"How wrong? What kind of wrong?" She asked, suddenly wide awake.

"Very wrong. Well this morning he woke up, clutching his head, thinking he had gotten trashed the night before because his head was throbbing and he couldn't remember anything after the night he met me. He couldn't remember me! And then I went away for a bit and he was back to normal. I wanted to tell you about it today but I didn't get a chance, and just now I was talking to him and his head started hurting like this morning and his eyes rolled back into his head and he convulsed and now he's just zoned out staring at nothing and he won't respond." I sped up as I spoke. By the end it might as well have all been one word. I stopped to breathe for a second. "Izzy, has this happened before? Does he have... like, a condition or epilepsy or something I don't know about, or is this normal for Shadowhunters, because it's really scaring me!" My voice broke, sounding hysterical. I reached up to find tears on my cheeks. I stared at Jace, putting my hand to his cheek; his temperature was normal, but when I let go and his head rolled back to the side, a line of blood flowed from his mouth to the mattress. A quick look told me he had bitten his cheek from the pain.

"Clarissa?" I heard on the phone. I hadnt't realise Izzy had been talking.

"Yes?" I replied anxiously, but more calmly than before.

"Let me get this right. This morning he forgot about your entire existence while his head was aching, and then suddenly snapped out of it, and now, after his head started hurting again, he freaked out and now he's not responding?"

"Yes." I hissed. "Izzy, I'm scared, what is it, what's wrong? If he forgets me again tomorrow morning and he finds out you're not here, I don't know what he'll do."

"I think someone is trying to get into his head, and they're succeeding – sort of. I don't think Jace was ever properly trained against mental attacks. And whoever is in there clearly has no idea what they're doing. It's dangerous for him to have someone so untrained in there. Whoever is doing this wants to delete you from his memory but they don't know how to keep it up." She was trying to sound calm, but I could hear the worry in her voice. "This could be bad Clary." She said. "Very bad. I'm coming home tonight, okay? You can't trust that Jace is himself right now." She hung up before I could answer.

Izzy had arrived around midnight with Alec, after I had cleaned the blood off his face. They both rushed into the room like a hurricane of worry. Izzy was at Jace's side in a second, staring into his still-glassy eyes.

"I've never seen him look so vacant." She said softly. Alec wandered slowly over to stand next to me, his arms crossed and his brow furrowed.

"Definitely looks like someone is in his head." He said, his voice low and strained.

"Can Bane help?" I asked, the idea dawning on me.

"Yes, we should, but we can't go to him tonight. But we need Jace to be alert first." Isabel's voice was thick as she finished. "Whoever is doing it probably assumed he would be asleep so no one would notice the lack of response. We should be able to do it tomorrow, relatively early so as not to risk this happening before we get there. Bane will probably want to see it happen. If they do it again tomorrow at least we'll know they're not oo bright. No one ever goes to bed at the same time every day.

"It's like they've torn him out of his body." I whispered, not having paid much attention to anything Isabel said after 'not tonight'.

"Well at least we know why his head hurt. He _was_ torn out of it." Alec said darkly, staring off into the corner.

"Will he remember me when he snaps out of it?" I asked softly.

"I don't know, but I think it's best for you to stay away from him until we're certain he is himself." Said Isabel, in a business-like tone. "We can't say whether the person responsible has succeeded fully this time. I doubt it though. I wish you'd been able to tell us earlier." I didn't answer. I couldn't even think about the fact that if he forgot me permanently it might be my fault. "There's nothing to do but wait for now." Izzy sighed resignedly.

None of us got a wink of sleep. We just sat there tensely awaiting his awakening. It was dawn when Jace's eyes flickered. Isabel shot me a look and I scampered out of the room. The next five minutes were agony. I couldn't hear anything but muffled whispers through the door, so there was nothing to do but sit and wait. When Alec came out I rushed to my feet, staring at him hopefully.

He put a finger to his lips and whispered "He doesn't remember you at all. Last thing he remembers is going out to hunt with me and Izzy at the club the night you met. The person doing this definitely wants to erase you. Until he can remember you himself like he did yesterday, you should stay away."

I blinked at him, trying to absorb everything. "That might never happen!" I hissed frantically. "What if he never remembers?"

"Try not to think like that. The one doing this can't have improved that much in one night. I think they're practicing on him. It might be serious, but it might literally just be someone practicing on him, with no particular goal or motive. Unlikely though. We just don't know. Chances are, he'll remember in a few minutes. It took them all night to do this one, like it must have before. They're not powerful enough to do anything too drastic right now. We've got to teach him how to fend off an attack though. The second his head starts to throb." I nodded.

It was an hour before he came back fully. It was better than forever, but it was still an hour too long. I didn't know what had happened last time before he came back properly, but Isabel said that he was clutching his head the whole time and before he remembered his eyes went glassy and vacant again for a few seconds, and it was like he had woken up again. He asked for me first thing. Isabel came out and gestured for me to come in.

"What happened last night Clary? Did I fall asleep or something?" He looked frustrated. "I don't know. And why the hell was Isabel here?"

"Tell me what you remember." I said calmly.

"You were telling me about your dream and then my skull started pounding like crazy, and I don't remember anything else." He looked at me like I had all the answers in the world.

"Someone invaded your mind. That's why your head hurt."

"What?" He asked, sitting up. I sat down next to him and stroked his hair.

"Don't worry, we're going to figure it out, but we don't know what's happening right now. You keep waking up and not remembering anything about me. That's what happened yesterday, when you woke up, remember?"

"I don't remember waking up the first time you mentioned." He said, and this clearly worried him a lot. "I never learned how to fight this off properly." He gave a sad laugh, "I could fight off anything that came after you - except myself. You are the one thing I'm most desperate to protect and they could make me do anything to you Clary. I won't be aware of it for a second. You can't trust me." He looked down at his hands, which he was wringing in his lap. Confident Jace, who always had a witty comeback, who was always in control of everything, who didn't associate himself with fear... sitting in his bed, wringing his hands. It just made everything more real. But I wouldn't let him give up or try to leave because he thought he would hurt me.

"Jace, as long as you remember me, I know I can trust you."

"But what if he learns to make it sudden?" He asks, turning and staring at me intently. "What if I don't even know it's happening and I'm gone. What if he learns to not just take away memory, what if he learns to control me? What then, Clary?"

"From what Izzy said, they won't be strong enough for that for a long time. What they're doing is messy, and dangerous for you, but at least that gives us more time to prepare. You're going to learn to fight it. We're going to see Bane tonight."


	3. Chapter 3

Banter coming up! I hope it's funny. It's probably not, but I wanted to try. If you hate it, please let me know (why) :)

This one is a bit shorter, sorry.

In order to see Bane, we knew we'd have to look the part again. Particularly Alec, for obvious reasons. We began preparations in the late afternoon. Isabel said I would need 'extra work, because of the sleepless night'. Jace snorted at that. So Izzy put him in charge of my wardrobe, knowing he would pick something that he could... appreciate looking at... and so could everyone else in the club.

While he searched through her enormous closet, which was more of a room than a wardrobe, Izzy did my makeup. "How about you sleep the night before we go see Bane next time, yeah?" She said as she furiously blended the concealer under my eyes. If you can blend something furiously. She was about halfway through lining my eyes with kohl black liquid liner when Jace called from the closet.

"You realise that most of the alleged clothes in here don't actually qualify as clothing, right? Not that I mind if I get to pick them for Clary." Cheeky bastard.

"They cover the legal requirements for what constitutes clothing appropriate for leaving private property!" She shot back. In response Jace merely threw a skimpy lingerie set which was _kind of _a dress with parts of the lace cut out in the most intimate places, into the room.

"That's lingerie!" She shrieked, "What did you expect?!"

He popped his head out. "Don't be ridiculous Izzy, we all know that's too modest for your lingerie. You have a whole other closet for that. Where were you really planning on wearing it?"

"Get your filthy paws off my underwear and keep looking for clothes for Clary!"

"Underwear is part of clothes, Isabel. They're just for under your clothes. The problem is that you seem to think that you can wear them on their own. Don't worry though, I mean, it's not like you don't like good in them." He called.

"Shut up, I'm focussing!" She roared.

"You're just saying that because you know I would look better. Don't worry; I look better than everyone in everything. You're not the only one."

"Even me?" I challenged as Izzy brought her lash curling contraption of death to my eye.

"We'd have to test that." He said teasingly.

"I'm not going to let that one go." I called, "Don't think I'm going to forget."

"I want to be there." Said Izzy as she finished with the mascara. "I'm judging."

"Clary, you'd better go first, we don't want Izzy passed out from me before she can give you a score."

Izzy ignored him and went about fussing with my hair. She styled it in a similar updo

Just after she finished, Jace walked out holding another black top which he and Izzy still both swore was a dress aloft in his hand, smiling victoriously. He laid it on the bed, softly, brushing it mock-lovingly before going back into the closet. He exited holding a pair of black stilettos with red soles, and a choker made of black silk with the Angelic rune at the centre.

"A choker, really?" Asked Izzy, raising an eyebrow.

"Oh come now, it works. As much I would love to stay and watch, I do need to get dressed myself, unfortunately, unless you would like to help?" He looked at me with his eyebrows raised. When I didn't reply, he continued, "Yes, you're right, we don't have time to wait for you to come out of the shock coma." He said, heading out of the room.

Alec walked in, took one look at the dress on the bed and said "Shall I grab you a sharpie? You know, so you can do the phone number on the wall?"

"Antique joke!" Called Jace from the hall.

I had felt ridiculously good to hear and see Jace being his usual cocky self again. All morning he was broody and frustrated, but it was like something had snapped and he couldn't stand the lack of sarcasm or ego any longer. Thank God.

An hour later we were walking along the street to Bane's club. I spent the first half of the walk with my hands holding my 'dress' down. Jace just smiled at me, giving a little chuckle.

"Oh fine," I said, "Just laugh at my suffering."

"It doesn't look like suffering to me – suffering is usually unattractive and that's certainly not the case. And besides, you're wearing that dress because I liked it, we're going to the club for me... we've established that most things revolve around me at this point and _I'm_ not suffering." He said lightly, clearly choosing to enjoy himself before what I assumed was going to be an unpleasant experience so Bane could see the mind-invasion. "But I am, deep down a merciful soul when beautiful women are involved," he smirked at me, "So I will ease your apparent distress." He pulled off his long leather coat and held it out for me to put my arms through. After I had it on he placed his arm around my waist, quickly snaking down to pull the dress down before I could again.

We did up the buttons together; I held the hole open and he pushed the button through. See, usually this kind of thing wouldn't work, but this was Jace, so naturally it did. He leaned in and whispered, "When we get to the club the coat comes off though, wouldn't want to waste such a... becoming dress by not showing it to the world."

"Don't you want me to be only for your eyes?" I challenged.

"Oh no, that's only for men too scared to let another man see. I know no one would dare try anything." His arm tightened around my waist and with his voice low and dangerous I knew he was only half joking. We walked in comfortable silence for the next five minutes. I was impressed with Alec and Izzy's lack of response actually. As we approached the club door Jace untangled his arm and turned me to face him, undoing the button of his black coat swiftly. Before I knew it, I felt the cold night air against my bare legs again. I sighed and headed to the entrance.

Jace knocked on the door, and the little hole opened."We're here to see Magnus Bane." He said.

"Speaking." Replied a smooth voice. Suddenly, two eyes rimmed with glittering blue eyeliner peaked out at us. "Is the blue eyed one with you?" He asked.

"Yes," I said, impatiently, "But we really need to talk to you about something important."

He sighed. "What is it?"

"I can't explain out here, can you let us in please?" I asked sweetly, batting my eyelashes as best I could, trying not to look like an idiot. He sighed once more and opened the door.


End file.
